BYF- 41

I recently inherited a Luger from my father. He aquired it during the war while fighting in France as a infantryman. His squad captured a machine gun crew and the Luger was taken from the sergeant that was in charge of the crew. The pistol was new, wrapped in a piece of heavy oily paper and stashed with two magazines inside of the sergeants pack. Without inspecting them, my father gave one magazine to his friend who carried a Luger and wanted a spare. Dad said it was probably the magazine with the matching serial number that he gave away since the magazine number is different from the pistol. All of the numbers on the pistol itself match. The pistol was mailed home still wrapped and sat gathering dust in my aunts closet until 1959 when she graduated school and left home. My grandfather reminded my dad about the pistol and returned it to him. Delighted to be reunited with his long forgotten Luger, dad shot several boxes of shells thru it and then cleaned it and put it away.. About once a year he would break it out and run a few rounds threw it. He took great satisfaction in shooting tomato paste cans at 25 yards with it. The pistol has not been fired since about 1975 and has only had about 200 rounds fired in it.

I am hardly an Expert on Lugers and was wondering what this one is approximately worth for insurance purposes. I would never sell it since it is a piece of family history.


It is a typical P.08 model. Judging by its BYF markings, it appears to have been made at the Oberndorf (sp?) Mauser Works in Germany. There is a 41 (probably the year of manufacture) stamped on the receive and the serial number appears to be 974, but it also has 74 stamped in several places. I was told this is common and is simply the last two numbers of the serial number. There are no import stamps or any other stamps other then the expected P.08, NAZI eagles and the proof marks. The magazine is steel with an aluminum base. The finish has some very minor wear signs, the bore and all of the moving parts are in excellent condition.

I HATE these stories!! OK, not really, just jealous! Hope you stick around and welcome to the forum. Wonderufl to have a nice story like that with your Luger. If you go to the general information you can leanr a lot about the Luger and care. So far it appears that you have learned or know a lot about the basic infromation on your Luger. Yes the last two numbers are the serial number through out your gun, the 41 is the date on the receiver. In the Tech Info, are proof marks and such that can tell you more about your Luger. Pictures please if possible is always cool, and can be posted right here.


Others will have more information I am sure, although they would like pictures of the proofs and such to give an estimate of its worth.


A shooter (which is not what yours sounds like) is worth $450 - 550 dollars in Washington State, so a non shooter is usually worth several hundred more and possibly even more if it is in really nice shape / rare / unusual.


Ed

Thanks. I know what you mean, I get jelous about things myself. While not a Luger expert, I am fairly knowlegable about firearms in general. I was a Marine Corps Marksmanship Training Unit Instructor, Amourer and have hunted and shot since I was 5. I recognized the BYF marking because of my working with M-98 Mausers.

Actually dads story is not all that dramatic. Shortly after crossing the Sigfried line, he and his squad were sitting in the wood beside a dirt road eating lunch while on patrol. They heard someone speaking German coming down the road so the squad hid and waited to see who it was. When the germans came close my father) told them(in German to stop and put up their hands. The squad disarmed the Germans and my father being the only American who spoke German, asked if any of them had a pistol. The sergeant in charge of the machine gun crew said that he had a new Luger in his pack. Evidently he had earlier stolen it from an officer and had plans of selling it. Dad mailed the new pistol home a few days later. Since dad carried a Luger with him, he figured he would later give the one he carried to his brother and keep the new one for himself. He mailed the new pistol home a few days after he aquired it and totally forgot about it until 1959.

These are the links to the pictures you wanted. I think the oil on the gun made the colors shift a little. The gun looks beter in real life then these pixs.


http://boards.rennlist.com/upload/Luger_D2w.jpg

http://boards.rennlist.com/upload/Luger_D1w.jpg






http://boards.rennlist.com/upload/Luger_D3w.jpg

No, that is a cool story. I have an article / school project of the Seigfried Line and although not a show stopper, was pretty impressive and still is. I have a picture of me and my dog standing among the cement tank traps. With a history like that, I think it is a nice story to go with the Luger!


Ed

That is cool, I only know a little about the line. I wanted to visit France and Germany with him, but he died last July. Dad was in the 70th infantry Divison, 275 Infantry Reg. HE was only 19 years old when he got the Luger. He could speak 6 languages because of the area he grew up in and becasue his parents were from Hungary. The Army kept him over there after the war for a while to act as a translator for all of the DPs. He did manage to bring some cool stuff home, but a lot of it was taken from him when he shipped home.